How to Interpret Your Score Report

What Score Do I Need to Pass an Exam?

Our exam scoring scale ranges from 1 to 99. You need a total score of 75 to pass an ARRT exam—no matter how many items an exam contains. In addition, our Sonography exam requires a score of 7.5 or greater in both the Abdomen and the OB/GYN sections.

A score of 75 doesn’t mean you correctly answered 75% of the test items. Instead, a scaled score controls for differences in difficulty across versions of an exam. Scaled scoring is a standard practice among certification organizations. The next section explains how it helps make our exams fair and equitable to all.

How Does ARRT Score Exams?

ARRT continually updates our exams—adding new items and removing outdated ones—to address advances in the profession. Sometimes, one version of an exam is slightly easier or more difficult than another. On an easier version, you might need to answer a few more items correctly to receive a passing scaled score of 75. That means, no matter which version of an exam you take, a scaled score of 75 represents the same level of performance.

ARRT’s Board of Trustees sets passing scores for each discipline after receiving input from a panel of experts who work in that field. A passing score shows that candidates have mastered sufficient knowledge to perform the role being tested.

Learn more about Standard Setting or Exam Scoring.

What Are Total Test and Section Scaled Scores?

A total test scaled score shows how well you did on the overall exam. Section scaled scores give your performance on each section of the exam and let you see your relative strengths and weaknesses across content sections.

Section scores range from 0.1 to 9.9. We report them in one-tenth point intervals (for example, 8.1 or 8.6). You can generally interpret a section score of 8.1 as equivalent to a total scaled score of 81, had that section made up the entire exam. We intentionally present section scores on a different scale because they’re based on a subset of test items—and therefore the scores are less reliable than the total scaled score. Reliability, simply put, is how consistent your score would be if you took the exam multiple times back to back. 

Averaging your section scores doesn’t equal your total score, because each section has a different number of items. A section with 75 items influences your total score more than a section with only 35 questions does. As we add items to the exam, the reliability tends to increase. Because sections are much shorter than the total exam, though, we suggest using section scores only to compare your relative strengths and weaknesses.

How Does My Score Compare to That of Other Candidates?

You can find historical average scores, along with additional statistics, under Exam Statistics.

Use these statistics for general reference purposes only. Changes to the exam content specifications or passing score will make it more difficult to compare your score to others' results.